Brett's Little Headaches Page 6

  I kept up a running conversation, just pointing out the houses as we drove by, slowing down enough for her to get a good look.

  It was the third one that caught her attention. I knew it by the way she craned her neck to get a better look and the way her pulse jumped in her wrist.

  I pretended to be enjoying the architecture, while I asked her about the color of the stone and the grounds that consisted of a massive lawn with a garden that could barely be made out from the street.

  I was pleased that she seemed reluctant to leave the area, but if I hung around there much longer I was afraid she’d figure me out and that might sour her on the idea.

  I already knew exactly what I was going to do, how I was going to work it. It had taken me only one day to figure her out. Thank fuck she didn’t have any hidden pockets; I’ve dealt with enough of that shit to last me a lifetime.

  Chapter EIGHT

  BRETT

  The beach wasn’t crowded as yet and I found a nice spot for us to spread the blanket that we’d brought. The boys were and handful from the time their little feet touched sand, and their only interest, was in the water.

  Between the two of us they kept us hopping and I have to admit I was ass tired within an hour maybe. “How do you do it?” the little rascals were having a snack and chattering away at each other, which they do a lot of I noticed.

  I’ll have to keep an eye on that as they get older, who knows what the fuck they might be getting up to with that secret code shit they seem to be speaking.

  Laurie says it’s just baby talk, but I’m not too sure. I was a boy once, with brothers. Speaking of which, I need to call and rub it in that I beat them in the grandbaby race.

  Since they’re older they’ve beaten me at pretty much everything else, but this was a biggie.

  “You have to prioritize. In the beginning, especially when they first started walking, it was rough. I jumped each time one of them moved. I was always afraid they would fall and hurt themselves.

  I was constantly moving, never a dull moment. But then I got the hang of it and stopped being afraid, now I just watch and let them play with my heart in my throat. I guess it’s always going to be that way as a mom. Do you have kids?”

  She asked the last as if she thought she was overstepping. Hah, she can ask me anything, in fact I want her to.

  “No, no kids, speaking of which, where’s their dad?” The word damn near burnt a hole in my tongue.

  “He’s gone.” She shifted sand through her fingers and gazed off over the water. “He’s never even met them, but I don’t blame him, not anymore. We were young, well I was two years younger, but he was still a kid himself.”

  “But do you think he’ll come back one day, want to have a part in their lives?”

  “I don’t see how, he’s never been here for them. I think I would be pissed if he showed up at some later date after all the ground work has been done you know.”

  “Yeah I hear you, so there’s no way you’d go back to him?”

  “Are you nuts? I wouldn’t do that to my boys. As young as he was, I was younger; I stuck it out, he could’ve too. No, the boys don’t need that kind of influence in their lives.”

  “What if he came back seeking custody at some later date?”

  “I’ll fight him to the death before I’d ever let that happen. No judge in their right mind would ever do that after what he’s done.”

  You might be surprised. I didn’t say that out loud, but the reality was that the justice system could be fucked sometimes and you never knew what was going to happen.

  Especially if the judge was one of those asshole types that believed kids belonged with both parents, no matter how fucked they were.

  “You said yesterday that you want to go back to school full time, what is it you want to study?”

  “Right now I’m just taking the prerequisites for when I can go, that way they will be out of the way. I was actually thinking of early childhood development, I want to be a teacher. Either that or a daycare provider.” She shrugged her shoulders and looked away again.

  “And that’s your dream?”

  “No actually, my dream, before all this happened, was to grow up, meet prince charming, get married and have a ton of kids. I’ve never really been career oriented. But now with the boys, I have to face reality.”

  Damn this was sounding better and better. If she’d said it was her lifelong dream to be a career woman, I would’ve found a way to live with it.

  But the reality is, I make more than enough money so that my wife wouldn’t have to lift a finger to do anything, and quite frankly I don’t want my woman working outside the home; something else to file away for future reference.

  I fished for more information while we ran after the boys and played catch with them or built sand castles.

  Before you know it, it was naptime and the boys were getting cranky. We packed up and headed back after feeding them the fruit and snacks she’d brought for their lunch.

  I’d just spent three hours with them and it felt like nothing, like I could do it all day and not grow weary of it. My adrenaline was pumping like the time my brothers and I climbed Everest. I was definitely a goner.

  We passed by the house again and although she was a little tired, she still smiled at it and watched out the window until it was out of sight.

  I didn’t miss the touch of sadness that left her when we turned the corner and it was no longer in view. She probably thought she’d never see it again.

  Back at her place I helped her get the boys to bed. “I have something to do baby, how about I go take care of that and I’ll be back with dinner later?”

  “You don’t have to do that...”

  “I want to, what would the boys like? There’s this really nice Italian place I know that have the best spaghetti and meatballs.”

  “Oh they’d love that thanks, are you sure?” I pulled her into me for a much needed kiss. She took me under as soon as our tongues met. Each time I took her mouth, it got harder and harder to let her go.

  “You’re so soft and sweet baby. What time is it?” she checked her watch and told me.

  “Thirteen days, six hours to go, damn that seems so long all of a sudden. You said before that you only trust your dad to babysit...”

  “Oh that’s outside the babysitter I take them to. She doesn’t work weekends so dad usually helps out then.”

  “So you only work during the week?”

  “Yeah, which is a bummer because the restaurant gets busier on the weekend, but hey, you take what you can get right.” Not for long, and not if I have anything to say about it.

  I felt even surer of myself and what I was about to do when I left her. This had to be right, there’s no way life could be so unfair as to put this woman in my way and not let me have her.

  The realtor wasn’t too put out about a last minute call on a Sunday. Especially not when I gave him my name.

  After a quick clean up to get the sand off, and a little rough housing with my dog, I was back on the road and headed for her dream house.

  The place looked even better up close, and the inside was a thing of beauty. There was more than enough room with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, and the backyard was plenty big enough for my rough and tumble boys to play in.

  I could already see us here. I’ll have to give the boys swimming lessons even though the large in-ground pool was gated.

  Would she be happy here? She’s the one that would be spending her days here while me and the boys went about school and work.

  And I can’t believe that I’m actually standing here contemplating this shit. Just a few short days ago I was ready to write off women.

  Someone that I had grown to trust had betrayed me in the worst way and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she’d gone to great lengths to destroy me.

  A man in my position couldn’t afford to have certain blemishes on his record and the one she tried to leave me with was a doozy.

 
; It was the last straw in a long line of bullshit that I’d had to put up with lately and I was at the end of my rope.

  So it’s amazing that I find myself in the position of asking someone else to trust me with their future, their happiness.

  But it felt right; I won’t falter now, I’m gonna go with my gut all the way and see where it takes me.

  “We’ll take it.” I’ll leave the decorating and shit to her, but there was no reason I couldn’t get started on some things.

  By the time we were through with paperwork and all that we could get done on a Sunday, it was time for me to grab dinner. I called it in and picked it up on the way back to her.

  Now how was I going to let her know what I’d done? I’m pretty sure she was going to be pissed if I just came right out and told her that I’d bought us a house, so I have to be slick.

  I called her on the way back to her place to let her know I was almost there. I felt more excitement than I had in a long time, which only made me doubly sure that I was on the right track, not much gets a rise out of me these days.

  The thoughts that had been plaguing me this last week threatened to intrude again, but I knocked them back, they had no place here.

  I pulled up to her place and ran up the stairs, dying to see them again like I hadn’t just left them a few short hours ago.

  “Do you ever do anything small?” This was her question when she saw the bags of food I’d brought.

  Since it wasn’t dinnertime quite yet I decided to hang with the boys, who were still a little tired from the beach even after their naps.

  It hurt my heart a little the way they fought for my attention, the way they sucked it up, because I knew what it meant. They were starved for male companionship. Her father was probably the only one they were ever around.

  It hurt because for some fucked up reason I imagined what their lives would be like without me, if someone else came along, someone less trustworthy who was only out to use, to hurt.

  The thought made my guts hurt, but it made me even more determined.

  We played with building blocks and whatever else they could think of while one or the other took turns sitting on my lap and regaling me with tale after tale.

  “Okay you three, time for dinner.”

  “Alright boys let’s go wash up.” I herded them into the bathroom that was barely big enough to hold me. I sneered and gritted my teeth, but held my tongue.

  I can’t forget how she’d stood up to me yesterday with her cute self, and had no doubt she’d tear me a new one if I criticized her home.

  My disdain wasn’t for her, I am proud of her for all that she’s achieved so far on her own. I just wanted to give her, them, so much more and soon.

  Almost as soon as we sat down to eat, the doorbell rang and she got up to answer it. Some guy came in, hugged her and kissed the top of her head, and to make matters worse, the boys were fighting to get down from their chairs to go to him.

  As you can imagine I was more than a little pissed the fuck off, and to add insult to injury, the fucker saw my reaction and fucking smirked at me.

  I have to admit it was not my finest moment. I was at the point of calling her out, seriously, me. Mr. calm, cool and collected, was ready to strangle her ass in front of the stranger and the boys.

  I didn’t even look at her, just kept my eyes on him as I left my seat and walked to where she was standing in front of him.

  I didn’t miss the fucker’s grin when I put my arm around her and pulled her back into me, or the way she looked up at me like I’d lost my damn mind.

  “Dad, this is Brett, Brett, my father Alan Payne.” Shit, no wonder he was laughing at me, he probably did that shit on purpose.

  “Sir, pleased to meet you.” We shook hands and he walked over to say hello to his grandsons.

  “Why don’t you join us for dinner dad? Brett brought enough food to feed an army.”

  “If you’re sure you don’t mind.” He addressed this question to me and I was quick to assure him that it was fine by me. I got the impression the night before that he might not be too averse to his daughter dating someone, and who better than me? Maybe I could enlist his help if she proved to be too ornery.

  “So Cantone, what brought you to my daughter’s neck of the woods? I don’t believe this is your playing field is it.”

  “No, but the park where we met is between here and my place so...” He sat down across from me and fixed a plate.

  The boys were talking his ear off, in fact they were telling him about Gunther and me from what little I could piece together.

  He was studying me discretely, which was fine by me; he wouldn’t be any kind of a cop if he didn’t and an even worst father.

  “So what’s the verdict?” I asked him as soon as Laurie left the room to make coffee.

  “I have one question then I’ll let you know. What are your intentions?”

  “I want to marry her.”

  “What about the boys?”

  “They’re mine.” He gave me a very searching look, like I imagine he would a suspect in the interrogation room, but I didn’t care, this shit was important, he could strip search me if it would get me closer to my goal.

  “I think you should know, I already bought a house, she doesn’t know yet though so don’t mention it.”

  “Damn son, that’s kinda fast isn’t it? Though I can’t say I’m surprised. I ran you of course, found out quite a lot. Everyone seems to like you, except those who oppose you in business. They say you’re fair and just in your dealings until it comes to your enemies, then you’re vicious.

  I think you should know that if you do anything to harm my daughter or my grandkids I’ll bury you. Money or not!”

  “Fair enough, so does that mean that I have your blessing?”

  “Not that I think you need it, but sure. Might I suggest you keep moving fast, if you give her time to think she’ll make you both crazy, just overwhelm her if you will, trust me it’s the only way.”

  “I kinda figured that.”

  “So I see.”

  She came back into the room then so we had to table our little discussion so I made a note to myself to contact him at a more opportune time.

  She gave us a look of suspicion but didn’t say anything as she retook her seat. We kept the conversation light after that and she was none the wiser.

  Alan hung around playing with the boys for a while and I helped her clean up in the kitchen. I could hear the three of them laughing and whispering in the other room, and even that felt right.

  “Did you think about what we talked about?” I passed her the dish to dry and kept the fact that there was barely enough room for both of us to myself.

  I was walking a very tightrope here. On the one hand, I wanted to point out all that was missing in her life, to make myself look like a better prospect. And on the other, I didn’t want her to think that she wasn’t doing a good job.

  If I took our relationship out and looked at it realistically, I knew it didn’t make sense. No woman in her right mind, especially one with two little hearts to protect, would ever just jump right in.

  But I didn’t want to wait, couldn’t stand the thought of waiting. “What would you say if I told you I wanted you and the boys to come home with me?”

  She stopped wiping the dish and stared at me. “I know you have to be practical, I know this all seems crazy, but think about it from my point of view.

  I met this amazing woman with two beautiful little tykes who stole my heart in one day. I have more than enough of everything to make their lives easier, but she won’t let me because she’s afraid.

  So I have to leave her tonight and every night, because I plan on seeing them every single day, and go back to my lonely condo, leaving them here unprotected.”

  “You do know we’ve lived on our own for tow years without incident.” “That’s not the point and you know it.”

  “You said it yourself, it’s not very realistic for you to expect me t
o just jump into the situation no matter how much I may want to.”

  “So you do want to.” I dropped the dish back in the soapy water and snatched her up. “Well what’s stopping you?”

  “Put me down before dad comes in here, he’s nosy.”

  “Uh-uh, tell me, what’s stopping you? Is it fear of the unknown? I could say the same you know. I’m worth billions, how do I know you won’t take me for all I’ve got?”

  “How would I do that?”

  “When I marry you, you will be entitled to half my assets, and when you get to know me you’ll learn that I hate to lose, so you see, we both have something to lose.”

  “Somehow I don’t think it’s the same. I don’t think you can compare paper to a broken heart.”

  “Who says you won’t break my heart? You stand as much chance of breaking my heart as I do yours. Or are you one of those women who think that men have no feelings and are only interested in one thing?”

  She bit her lip and seemed to be giving my words some thought. “You know what your problem is baby, you think too much. Let’s take a chance on each other.”

  “If it were just me, but the boys...”

  “Don’t you see? This is as much for them, as it is for us. I just met them yesterday and I’m already in love with them. I want to give them everything that I had as a kid...”

  “That’s just it, how can I trust that? How can I believe that you want my boys when their own father has never even seen them?”

  “I thought I told you I wasn’t about to pay for some other asshole’s fuck ups? He was a kid you said right? I don’t know why he ran, but I’ll tell you what, I’m happy as fuck that he’s out of the picture.

  I don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d told me that you were taken. I’ve never reacted this way to anyone before in my life. Not mentally or physically.

  The bottom line here is that I will always be a part of your life from now on. I will never let anyone else have you ever, so you’re pretty much stuck.

  Now I’m trying to respect you and give you the time you need, but it’s going to be hard. If you drag this shit out it’s going to be torture.”